Part 9 (1/2)

”Save that for the newscasts,” the President said. ”The fact remains, we've succeeded. And our success was a failure. Mankind's greatest dream, eh? Read these reports and you'll find out this is mankind's greatest nightmare.”

”Is it that bad?”

”Yes.” The President slumped in his chair. ”It's that bad. We can reach the moon at will. Now we can send a manned flight to Mars. But it means nothing. We can't support life in either place. There's absolutely no possibility of establis.h.i.+ng or maintaining an outpost, let alone a large colony or a permanent human residence. That's what all the reports conclusively demonstrate.

”Every bit of oxygen, every bit of food and clothing and material, would have to be supplied. And investigations prove there's no chance of ever realizing any return. The cost of such an operation is staggeringly prohibitive. Even if there was evidence to show it might be possible to undertake some mining projects, it wouldn't begin to defray expenses, once you consider the transportation factor.”

”But if they improve the rockets, manage to make room for a bigger payload, wouldn't it be cheaper?”

”It would still cost roughly a billion dollars to equip a flight and maintain a personnel of twenty men for a year,” the President told him. ”I've checked into that, and even this estimate is based on the most optimistic projection. So you can see there's no use in continuing now. We'll never solve our problems by attempting to colonize the moon or Mars.”

”But it's the only possible solution left to us.”

”No it isn't,” the President said. ”There's always our friend Leffingwell.”

The Secretary of State turned away. ”You can't officially sponsor a thing like that,” he muttered. ”It's political suicide.”

The gray smile returned to the gray lips. ”Suicide? What do you know about suicide, Art? I've been reading a few statistics on _that_, too.

How many actual suicides do you think we had in this country last year?”

”A hundred thousand? Two hundred, maybe?”

”Two million.” The President leaned forward. ”Add to that, over a million murders and six million crimes of violence.”

”I never knew--”

”d.a.m.ned right you didn't! We used to have a Federal Bureau of Investigation to help prevent such things. Now the big job is merely to hush them up. We're doing everything in our power just to keep these matters quiet, or else there'd be utter panic. Then there's the accident total and the psycho rate. We can't build inst.i.tutions fast enough to hold the mental cases, nor train doctors enough to care for them. s.h.i.+fting them into other jobs in other areas doesn't cure, and it no longer even disguises what is happening. At this rate, another ten years will see half the nation going insane. And it's like this all over the world.

”This is race-suicide, Art. Race-suicide through sheer fecundity.

Leffingwell is right. The reproductive instinct, unchecked, will overbalance group survival in the end. How long has it been since you were out on the streets?”

The Secretary of State shrugged. ”You know I never go out on the streets,” he said. ”It isn't very safe.”

”Of course not. But it's no safer for the hundreds of millions who have to go out every day. Accident, crime, the sheer maddening proximity of the crowds--these phenomena are increasing through mathematical progression. And they must be stopped. Leffingwell has the only answer.”

”They won't buy it,” warned the Secretary. ”Congress won't, and the voters won't, any more than they bought birth-control. And this is worse.”

”I know that, too.” The President rose and walked over to the window, looking out at the sky-sc.r.a.per apartments which loomed across what had once been the Mall. He was trying to find the dwarfed spire of Was.h.i.+ngton's Monument in the tangled maze of stone.

”If I go before the people and sponsor Leffingwell, I'm through.

Through as President, through with the Party. They'll crucify me. But somebody in authority must push this project. That's the beginning.

Once it's known, people will have to think about the possibilities.

There'll be opposition, then controversy, then debate. And gradually Leffingwell will gain adherents. It may take five years, it may take ten. Finally, the change will come. First through volunteers. Then by law. I only pray that it happens soon.”

”They'll curse your name,” the Secretary said. ”They'll try to kill you. It's going to be h.e.l.l.”